SPECIAL ISSUE OF LITERATURE COMPASS ON THE GLOBAL MIDDLE AGES

Literature Compass invites contributions for a special issue of the Global Circulation Project, edited by Geraldine Heng and Lynn Ramey, on the Global Middle Ages.

We define our period broadly as premodernity c. 500-1500 CE, always with flexible time horizons, and always with the understanding that the semi-convenient term "Middle Ages" is a heuristic category under erasure, and with diminished purchase for cultures and worlds outside premodern Europe.

Essays can focus on the circulation of a text, set of texts, ideas, themes, narratives, genres, or stories, and can take the form of broad surveys, or close readings of a particular motif, set of texts, or network of intercultural circulation. An interdisciplinary focus is especially welcome: in addition to literature and textuality, we are also interested in stories or themes that travel through fabrics, maps, sculpture, ceramics, clothing, edifices, or other cultural media, especially if they intersect with literary work. In like vein, we are equally interested in literary and cultural traces of how people and oral traditions traveled.

Contributions on cultural texts from other continents than the Americas and Europe are especially welcome. If you have an interest in an experimental approach or focus, please consult the issue editors at: heng@mail.utexas.edu and lynn.ramey@vanderbilt.edu